Why Puppy Mills Are Bad For Dogs

Puppies from pet stores are adorable, and everyone wants one. Unfortunately, those puppies have a twisted past. Almost all of them were from puppy mills. Puppy mills are where puppies are bred. They are awful, and the breeders do not treat them right. According to an article on Friendsofanimals.org called ‘Puppy Mills, Pet Shops, and the AKC Basic Facts’, pet stores get their puppies from puppy mills. Puppy mill breeders don’t care about the dogs. Puppy mills hurt dogs and the government must stop them by making them illegal and working to eliminate the remaining ones.

Puppy mills are bad for dogs. They hurt them by using wire cages, over breeding them, and neglecting them. Puppy mills usually house dogs in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions without adequate veterinary care, food, water or socialization... In a puppy mill, dogs are often kept in cages with wire flooring that injures their paws and legs. (“What is a Puppy Mill?”) Another website, peta.org, said this, “Perhaps most heartbreaking of all were the old mother dogs who had gone mad from confinement and loneliness. Our investigator watched these dogs circle frantically in their small cages and pace ceaselessly back and forth, which was their only way of coping with their despair.” This is why Puppy mills are bad for dogs. They hurt dogs physically and mentally.

Most

people would think that puppy mills are evenly spread out across the U.S. They would be wrong. Puppy mills are a bigger problem in the west then they are on the east. Puppy mills are mainly in the Midwest, Pennsylvania, and the northern parts of New York (“A Closer Look At Puppy Mills”). This is important because if you live in that area you can be even more on the lookout for puppy mills. Then, you can report them to the police.

Puppy mills focus on profit, not the welfare of the dogs (What Is a Puppy Mill?). One example of this is Patricia Yates. Patricia Yates was a puppy mill breeder who didn’t have a licence and kept her dogs in awful conditions. There cages were stacked on top of each other and the dogs were standing painful wire cages. Not to mention that nobody cleaned up after them after they went to the bathroom. The dogs conditions were horrible (Paul Solotaroff). That is important because, Patricia Yates is only one example. Most puppy mill breeders are like her.

It is no surprise that puppy mills have been protested (Neil Zolot). Even Though, puppy mills have been protested, it is not enough. There are still about 10,000 puppy mills in the U.S. (About Puppy Mills). Although protest don’t solve the problem that puppy mills exist, they do help a little bit. A store called ‘Dyvig’s’ that buys from puppy mills closed multiple times because of protests (Arianna Pittman). Protests help, but they don’t completely solve the problem a stronger solution is needed. There is a stronger solution, it’s at the end of this essay.

In 2010 Mississippi passed a law that says that puppy mills have to meet certain standards. 15 other states had passed laws like that one (A. G. Sulzeberger and Malcolm Gay). Unfortunately, these requirements are easy to meet. Mississippi still contains some of the worst puppy mills in the country (A Sampling of Problem Puppy Mills in the United States). That shows that the laws on puppy mills aren’t enough. Puppies are still suffering.

Puppy mill owners are cruel. They let awful things happen to the dogs. “Death is ... common on puppy mills. Many sick and untreated dogs die in their cages. Mother dogs, who can no longer breed, are killed in a variety of ways. Because they no longer profitable, puppy mill owners kill them. 'They do it themselves, often on their property, by starving, drowning, shooting, beating, or burying the dogs alive” (Rachel Curit). Puppy mills have to stop or more dogs will continue to suffer and die painful deaths.

Similar to what was said earlier, the laws against puppy mills need to be stronger.

“Conditions that most people would consider inhumane, or even cruel, are often legal” (A Closer Look at Puppy Mills). Laws against puppy mills aren’t strong enough. “The Canine Cruelty Prevention Act was passed in Missouri in 2011 to stop breeders from mistreating puppies. But it appears the problem still exists … Twenty-two of the 101 dealers in the Humane Society’s list of problem puppy mills are from Missouri, topping the list of worst breeders (Humane Society Releases List of 101 Worst Puppy Mills).” Laws against puppy mills really need to be

stronger.

The laws against puppy mills need to be stronger. The government need to ban puppy mills all together. Making puppy mills illegal, unlike trying to make them nicer, will work. This method has worked before specifically, it worked for bald eagles. "Forty years ago, our national symbol was in danger of extinction throughout most of its range. Habitat destruction and degradation, illegal shooting, and the contamination of its food source, largely as a consequence of DDT, decimated the eagle population. Habitat protection afforded by the Endangered Species Act, the federal government’s banning of DDT, and conservation actions taken by the American public have helped Bald Eagles make a remarkable recovery” (Bald & Golden Eagle Information). Making DDT illegal worked for illegals so making puppy mills illegal will work for puppies.

Although, making puppy mills illegal will work for most of the problem, there most likely will be rebels who break the law and continue to breed puppies in awful conditions. That is why there should be people whose job it is to look for illegal puppy mills. This worked with crime in general. When there were more police, there was less crime (Inimai M. Chettiar). Having more police officers worked to reduce crime in general, so having people find illegal puppy mills will work for puppies.

In conclusion, puppy mills harm dogs and they government has to stop them by making it against the law to run a puppy mill and sending people to find the remaining puppy mills and close them down. Puppy mills need to be closed down because, if they stay open, more puppies will die. There are ways for normal people to help stop puppy mills. They can protest at pet stores or only buy shelter dogs. If people don’t buy from puppy mills, the mills will close down. The suffering will end.